Small rant about "The Walking Dead" - spoilers
- Thread starter adamata
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Riceball
Master Member
The thing with a suppressor is that a gun has to be modded with a threaded barrel to accomodate one or come from the factory with a threaded barrel already on the pistol or rifle, you can't just simply pick up a suppressor, stick it on the end of your gun and expect it to work. Plus I'm not sure about how power/velocity loss you'd get on a .22LR with a can on the end, it might be enough to not be able to penetrate the skull of a zombie.
What would great, although near impossible to get without access to a military armor, would be a grenade launcher. At medium distances and/or in relatively open areas you would be able to clear a fairly large number of zombies with one shot with the added benefit of drawing the walkers to the sound of the explosion which would 10 of meters away from where you fired from so while it would still draw walkers it just wouldn't draw them right to you.
Kerr Avon
Master Member
I recall watching an episode of Mythbusters where they were testing out grenades of various types. They setup cutouts of people at varying distances so they could see how much shrapnel really hit them at distances. The thing that really struck me was that there was really very little damage from the grenade. Sure, flying metal punctured the wooden cutouts at various locations, but really only like 4-5 spots on the whole cutout, and I don't recall if any actually hit the head. So that shrapnel is really effective against living, breathing, people who can bleed or suffer from the shockwave, but would grenades be all that effective against walkers? I doubt it. You might damage a limb or two on them, but probably aren't going to put them down.
CB2001
Master Member
Can anyone say for certain that a .22 caliber gun can cause the necessary damage to the brain of a zombie to put it down? I mean, you'd have to be pretty upclose for it to make some sort of significant damage to a human being. I think it may require being up close for it to do anything (which a lot of people wouldn't like. Heck, my suggests of using a melee weapon being better than a firearm have been shut down because you'd have to be close to use it). But then again, I'm not familiar with firearms, but a .22 looks like its too small to cause the necessary damage required to put a zombie (or a human) down from a distance. I could very well be wrong in my interpretation.
epilepticsquirl
Sr Member
I've seen enough toe tags to tell you it will.
CB2001
Master Member
Have any of those toe-tags been headshots from more than 100 yards away? I'm sorry, I have to ask. I'm a stickler for details and from what I've seen and read in fiction about zombies, there's a difference in killing a human being (which any organ or artery being hit and killing them or any kind of severe trauma occuring) and killing a zombie (which the only effective hit is the brain to destroy it).
Inkthinker
New Member
Also addressed in Max Brooks WWZ, during "The Battle of Yonkers". From the wiki:
Though that description hardly does the scene any justice. It's really interesting to see how things like networked soldiers and modern shock-trauma weapons are badly designed to take on zombies. Explosives are especially of limited use.
Riceball
Master Member
That's true, while grenades do kill by fragmentation I think that a 40mm grenade (standard sized grenade used in US grenade launchers) should have enough HE to shred any walker in the immediate blast zone but it would likely have little effect outside of that. Still, there's always the possibility of a walker getting hit in the head by a piece of shrapnel.
Riceball
Master Member
I'd argue that explosives wouldn't be that limited in use, true you wouldn't get the full effect from the shock wave and shrapnel but anything within the blast radius of an explosive blast of anything more powerful than an anti-personnel land mind will get blown to pieces. If a zombie was inside the blast radius of any kind of artillery round from a howitzer, to a mortar, up to a rocket will be blown into tiny pieces; a hand grenade, anti-personnel land mine, or something like a Claymore would have little effect although a lucky hit from a piece of shrapnel from a grenade or ball bearing from a Claymore could kill a zombie and a land would slow down a zombie by blowing off 1 or both legs but it definitely wouldn't kill it unless the mine went off on or near its head.
Kerr Avon
Master Member
Or launch a crowd of flesh eaters into the air heading in your direction! :lol
The .22lr is very effective, the round tends to ricochet around the inside of the skull producing massive damage. The silenced .22 was a favorite of of the OSS, CIA, and the Military for discreet guard removal. Many Police Departments will have a few suppressed .22s for varmint and drug dog removal. There was a Ruger .22 rifle in the armory that Rick raided, and it is the South, most country homes will have at least one .22, plus ammo. Plus even a normal .22 will be a lot less noisy than Rick's .357 magnum, or .12 gauge.
David.
Gigatron
Sr Member
I think a 40mm grenade would do pretty well against a hoarde. Even if you don't kill them instantly, maybe you end up removing some of their legs. If they're not dead, you can at least slow them down to give yourself more time to escape.
Let's say you make your way to a really well equipped army base, equipped with some of the latest and greatest. So, you get your Mk. 19s, with HE rounds. Now what are we looking at with mortar rounds? How about those smart grenades with timed fuses for air bursts? A 40mm grenade set to burst in the air, at head height, is going to take out an ass-load of walkers.
-Fred
Let's say you make your way to a really well equipped army base, equipped with some of the latest and greatest. So, you get your Mk. 19s, with HE rounds. Now what are we looking at with mortar rounds? How about those smart grenades with timed fuses for air bursts? A 40mm grenade set to burst in the air, at head height, is going to take out an ass-load of walkers.
-Fred
Riceball
Master Member
I like the way you think! Another worthwhile option would be the Army's XM-25 smart grenade launcher, program the round to air burst right at head level exactly when and where you want it to go off, that is as long as the batteries last; I'm pretty sure they don't just run off of run of the mill Duracells.
CB2001
Master Member
Army bases would be a death sentence, even after the plague has spread. They're just as bad as going to hospitals. After seeing my fair share of zombie movies and reading some fiction such as the Zombie Survival Guide to know that anyone who is a civie will run to the nearest authority complex in hopes that they would be protected. That includes places such as police stations and army bases. Massive amounts of people would go there. Some for protection, some thinking that they can get their hands on the equipment and such. All it takes is one person out of hundreds of people there to turn it into a Dead Head Festival. Look at the episode where Shane and Otis tried to get the supplies needed to save Carl in the show (that was a FEMA site at a high school for that town. Times that by 500 and that's probably the amount of zombies you'd be dealing with). You wouldn't be able to make it in, let alone out, slam packed with the living dead.
And if there were any army bases, there's a good chance there'll be soldiers there. And if any soldiers areleft, there's a good chance that it'd be on full lockdown with their families inside, keeping anyone looking for shelter, food, water or weapons, shooting anyone on site.
So, either way, an army base would be a bad idea. Now, if there was a chance you just find vehicles and supplies that were left behind due to the army being forced back by zombies (i.e. the outside of the CDC in one of the Season 1 episodes of the show), then you'd probably have a better chance at getting military grade weapons (may not have a full lot of ammo, but at least you'd have something in case you find ammo later).
Riceball
Master Member
A full on military base might be a bad idea but a National Guard Armory might not be that bad depending on the typical manning of them during the off days of the month. If the average National Guard Armory doesn't have a large number of people manning it and/or living on base during the off days then it would be ripe for plundering during a zombie apocalypse.
Thinking of it, a military base wouldn't necessarily be a zombie haven, at least not bases like Camp Pendleton and 29 Palms that have a lot of large empty plots of land for use as training grounds, hell, 29 Palms is mostly training grounds with only 1 relatively small area where anybody actually lives and one other smaller area that's used for housing Marines during training exercises. Most of the good stuff that you'd want would be pretty close to those areas and assuming that the apocalypse doesn't hit in the middle of a major training exercise it would probably be pretty easy to get on base through those training grounds and avoid the majority of the zombies. I know that in the case of both 29 Palms and Pendleton the training grounds can be accessed without having to go the main parts of the bases, in fact, at Pendleton certain training areas they have to be careful when conducting live fire exercises because of worries about illegals running through after sneaking across the border.
Damrod
New Member
One bad thing about the military. When something like this happens and appears that the end is near. Everyone always wants to be with their families, so there will be mass desertions. The NG will be local, so they will be the first to go. Your Special Forces will last longer, but they will be overwelmed.
Gas will be a screw driver in the gas tank, but there will be contamination which will cause problems or a spark at a bad time. Walkers or someone who wants your stuff can appear at the worst of times. Cars even new break down at worst of times and then you have no mechanic around. Tanks are not indestructable and can throw a tread at the worst of times. Filters can clog always at the worst of times. Military vehicles tend to get gallons to the mile. Its not as easy as you think. Fun to think so, but its fun to think of how to survive.
Gas will be a screw driver in the gas tank, but there will be contamination which will cause problems or a spark at a bad time. Walkers or someone who wants your stuff can appear at the worst of times. Cars even new break down at worst of times and then you have no mechanic around. Tanks are not indestructable and can throw a tread at the worst of times. Filters can clog always at the worst of times. Military vehicles tend to get gallons to the mile. Its not as easy as you think. Fun to think so, but its fun to think of how to survive.
EyeofSauron
Master Member
thats what im allways preaching. zombie apocalypse wouldnt be fun. all the make believe things that people write here are not realistic. it seems like some think that they would be the only people trying to get stuff.
getting into a military base is hard as it is. getting into a military base where everything tries to kill you for food is close to impossible. weapon shops and grocery shops will be overrun by survivors, and all it takes is one zombie. id say the best bet for food would be farms somewhere around the country. there might be a few zombies there, but not nearly as much as somewhere around shops.
Gigatron
Sr Member
We're talking about ZOMBIES, fer cryin' out loud :lol. What part of any of this is "realistic". Might as well prepare for the vampire/werewolf/creature from the black lagoon apocalypse, while we're at it.
People talk about zombies like they're an actual thing. If we're going to talk about make believe monsters, can't we have make believe solutions? Let's be honest, for all the talk of preparing, 99.9% of us would be zombies before we even knew there was an epidemic :lol.
If you want to talk about realistic scenarios, let's talk about Bug Out Bags and routes of escape, in case of nuclear proliferation.
-Fred
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